Too Young To Care
by Cobweb Butterfly
Summary: chap 14. Review, I demand it! BV K18 CCG highschool AU with actual issues, that thing we call real life, where everything's not just parties, clothes and innocent fun (but people throw bricks) Eek! I return at last! And with a chapter that is GOOD!
1. And thus I have returned to thee

Wow… I've been pestered by more readers than I knew I had, to repost this… Anyway, I've had some troubles with floppies lately, and have lost the first 9 chapters of the story, so it'll be rewritten. Please, if you're reading this for the 2nd time, Review! Please, it would really mean a lot, and the story is going to be slightly different, mainly because I can't remember what happened. (Also, here's a note of things I don't want to hear mentioned in reviews unless you want a whole chapter that's just a rant at you: the fact that I spell names the Japanese way; my characterisation: I need you guys to read between the lines a bit in some cases, especially it seems, when it comes to Buruma)

Chapter 1-And thus, I have returned to thee 

Buruma stared out the window of the bus as it bumped its way down the hill towards her first day back at school. Crystalline droplets snaked their way across the dirty, faintly yellowed window before her face as the dreary grey heavens opened up above. She sighed heavily. What fitting weather for such a day. She had received a notice over the holidays that she was to skip a grade, an event she had managed to talk her parents out of until now. She didn't want to go up a grade, to leave behind all her friends.

The bus rolled slowly to a stop, on account of the ancient brakes, and Buruma stood up, swinging her bag over her shoulder and smoothing out her uniform. Her life had been getting complicated lately, she noted as she stepped off the bus. She'd broken up with Yamucha, whom she'd been dating for 3 years, since she was only 12. She'd come to the conclusion that, as she actually had gotten interested in boys as more than friends, she'd been growing apart from Yamucha, to her he could only ever be a friend, and nothing more. Lately, in fact, she'd developed a crush on a specific guy, for the first time. She'd always felt awkward, being the only one who wasn't infatuated with a certain guy, but now, despite the discomfort she'd discovered was associated with having a crush, she felt more 'normal'.

Normal was something Buruma strived very hard for. She'd had trouble fitting in all through her school life. She was a genius, she was rich, she had funny coloured hair and she was Japanese. Consequently she'd spent most of her life trying to convince her parents to keep her in the same grade as her friends, buy her slightly cheaper stuff and to speak in English, especially when they were in public.

Her delicate face split into a grin when she spied one of her best friends waiting for her at the entrance to her school. Chichi. Now Chichi was someone Buruma could really relate to, despite their obvious differences. Chi was Vietnamese; her family had come to Australia ((a/n: yes, Australia)) when she was around three with nothing. Absolutely nothing. She had come with her father; the tiny family still didn't know where her mother was. Chichi dealt with being absolutely poor, the opposite of Buruma's problem and between the two they managed to make themselves look fairly normal on the money scale, pooling money whenever they went shopping. Chichi also looked different, not so noticeably as Buruma, but she still looked Vietnamese, and spoke with a slight accent.

"Hey Buruma!" Chichi smiled, timetable clutched in her left hand, already a crumpled mess. "I got in some classes with Goku! We're both doing home economics, and are in the same social education class, it's his best subject, you know." Buruma smiled weakly.

"I know, Chi-chan. You're always telling me how good he is at it." In truth, Buruma was not very good at that class… by her standards anyway, she averaged a B, B- simply because she didn't like it. Maths and sciences were her forte, in particular maths and physics. She didn't bother unfolding her timetable to show her friend, it didn't matter, with her being in a different year level this year.

In any case, she feigned pleasure at Chichi's good fortune, and linked arms with the other girl, "Come on, let's go find Juuhachigou."

--

The tall blonde leaned up against her locker, scanning her class schedule. She hadn't looked at it when it had arrived with her report in the mail. She'd simply shoved it in her school bag, to look at when school finally started. She hadn't been pleased with her report, she'd done pretty well, all around the A and B mark, but that just wasn't going to cut it with her. She wanted to be a doctor and a B in biology didn't get you into medical school. So she'd decided that this year she would really knuckle down and work hard. No more slacking off with Buruma and Chichi. She couldn't afford to do that, they could. Buruma was a genius and Chichi wanted to be a chef.

Her brow furrowed slightly and she shoved her timetable back in her bag just in time to see Buruma and Chichi walk up, arm in arm and giggling hysterically. They looked up and waved to Juu in unison before collapsing into another fit of giggles. Juuhachigou sighed. They were her best friends, but sometimes she found the pair endlessly annoying. Fortunately she was saved from more schoolgirl hysteria by the abrasive sound of the bell. Chichi continued laughing but Buruma's face fell instantly, that was when they both remembered she'd been skipped a grade. There was an awkward silence for a few moments before Buruma shifted her weight, smiled and walked off, apologising briefly.

Buruma felt like shit. "'Congratulations on moving up'," she muttered to herself, "'more enjoyable' my arse." She scowled and stormed off to her first class.

Hmmm….. I don't remember the first chapter of this originally, but I have a feeling it was nothing like this, please don't kill me. Anyway, tell me what you think… this would be so much easier if it weren't for the stupid broken floppy disk….

Review or die, I'm warning you, dude.


	2. Whoosh it's chapter 2

Thank you to those who reviewed, and to those who didn't: remember, review or die.

And I'm glad you think it's better. 

Also, to explain math, there's no calculus or whatever, just Core Math (for stupid people) Optional Math (for not stupid people) and Advanced Math (for people who are smart/like to make their heads explode)

Chapter 2- 

Buruma flopped down into an uncomfortable plastic seat. Her advanced math teacher hadn't yet arrived in the room, and only a few students were starting to filter in. She received a few looks and her heart sunk even further into her stomach, school was such a closed community, all these people were a year older than her, they had their friendship groups already organised, and she wasn't going to be welcome to sit with any of them in her classes. She would be stuck with the loners.

While not exactly 'popular', Buruma was not a loner by any stretch of the imagination. She had numerous friends, and no real enemies; she just didn't have the patience for the absolutely shallow nature of those considered popular. While she herself could be shallow when the situation arose, as it quite often did, she craved intelligent conversation, and friends she could confide in. Being horrendously popular didn't offer that.

Despite her rejection of the popular lifestyle, Buruma had no desire to be confided to associating with those who, for whatever reason, were undesirable in the school society.

She looked up at the sound of someone dumping their books one desk down from her. She looked over. A reasonably attractive guy, with sandy, brown-blonde hair and dark eyes smiled back at her. He reached out his hand across the desk between them.

"You must be Buruma."

"Uh…" she blinked at him in surprise, of all things she hadn't expected him to know her name. She raised her arm mechanically and shook his hand. His grin widened, the corners of his eyes creasing as though he was laughing. She liked this guy, she'd decided.

"Well, I'm Damien. Nice to meet you, hope you don't feel too excluded here." Buruma mumbled something incoherent in reply, still stunned at the idea of someone actually talking to her, let alone being friendly. She noticed his warm eyes move focus and she swivelled her body around as Damien waved his hand in a friendly wave to the person now entering the room.

Buruma's breath caught in her throat and she sunk into her seat further. Shit. The one guy, the ONE guy she couldn't talk to without turning into a giggling mass of stupidity and he had to be in her first class. She realised, as he walked over, that he was going to sit next to her too. Great, it was the perfect way to begin the school year. Get put in a class with no friends and then sit next to the guy you adore and turn into a clumsy mute who couldn't solve so much as a quadratic equation if her life depended on it.

Fortunately, he ignored her. A brief scowl was all the indication he gave that he so much as knew she was there. She spent the entire lesson with her head bowed, face flushed scarlet, focussing on her work. Every once in a while she cast a furtive glance at the guy next to her, occasionally catching a look from Damien, who would raise his eyebrows at her. She felt an affinity with him, despite having only met him briefly. It was only when the bell rang that she realised she still didn't know the name of the person she was in love with.

--

Chichi struggled to keep an even pace. She hated PE so much. It was a pointless subject, in her eyes. How was running around the school repeatedly supposed to contribute to her education? As far as she was aware, PE had neither added to her intelligence, nor her enjoyment of school. All it had done was make her tired and sweaty and a long way behind her friends. She could see Kuririn and Juuhachigou up ahead of her; about to round a corner and become hidden by the large, redbrick building that was the science block. She struggled to make her aching legs move faster but gave up after about 30 seconds, preferring to lean against the warm bricks and gaze up at the endlessly blue sky.

A lone wisp of cloud floated amongst the blue, and Chichi was reminded, harshly, of how lonely she'd been feeling lately. Part of it was due to the fact that, after a fight with her father that had resulted in her violent temper inspiring her to throw and break numerous of his most precious possessions, she'd moved in temporarily with her cousin. But Chichi couldn't help but feel that wasn't the only reason for the aching chasm that was somehow consuming her from the inside. Sighing, she pushed herself off the wall and sluggishly picked up the jogging.

Juuhachigou pushed a few stray blonde wisps from her sticky forehead and sped up as she forced herself up a flight of stairs. She heard a breathless laugh behind her and she turned around, collapsing onto the stairs in the same movement.

"All right, Juu! I give up… but you're only faster because your legs are longer," Kuririn bent over, hands on knees, and grinned up at the tall blonde, who just rolled her eyes and laughed lightly.

"The bell's going to go for first break soon. We may as well skip the rest of class, we've run further than most of the people." Kuririn nodded and straightened up, the school didn't operate PE classes very well, most of the time the teacher just told them to run around the school while he sat in the gym drinking coffee. Most students just ran out of his line of vision and wandered off to talk somewhere. The odd few actually ran, those who were deathly afraid of doing anything wrong, those who were fitness freaks, those with no one to talk to, and Kuririn and Juuhachigou, who had set an unofficial challenge between each other in their first PE lesson at the school. They had been in the same class since, and always raced each other. Juuhachigou always won.

Juuhachigou waited for her short friend to catch up to her, and they trudged up the stairs side by side. They wandered around the school for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts, before Juu pointed out a bench just outside Buruma's computer class. They sat down to wait in silence.

It wasn't often that Kuririn was silent, and Juu shot him a confused sideways look. He looked so funny, being so short, and lacking a nose. Despite his funny looks, though, he was a great friend. He never failed to make her laugh, and never seemed too busy with his other friends to talk to her. Lately, though, the others had been making jabs at her, saying that she and Kuririn should be dating. It had made her angry, but at the same time, she'd been thinking about what it would be like. She'd had three boyfriends in the space of her 15 years, and none had lasted more than a fortnight. She hadn't been able to maintain a friendship with them afterwards either. So even if she wanted to go out with him sometime in the future, Juuhachigou had promised herself that she wouldn't. Their friendship was too precious for her to throw away like that.

The bell rang, jerking the pair out of their deep thoughts, and back to the here and now. A few people filed out of the classroom they were sitting in front of, and the two stood up, almost in unison. When Buruma emerged, Kuririn gave a friendly wave, and she walked over to them swiftly, an enormous grin making her eyes sparkle.

--

Yay! Another chapter, and it was LONGER! Anyway, I want at least 3 reviews before I update again, I don't think I'm being too greedy, seeing as I got 5 for this chapter (5 reviews, of course, makes me write more than 3 does) Yeah… Damien's new, Ai will be in it, for old readers, but she'll be called Ami, just to make her slightly more Western, seeing as it's set in Australia.

Review or die, my minions.


	3. The shortest chapter in the univerrrrsss...

Alright, minions. I want you all to bow down to Goku's Blue Angel, for she has just saved you from an eternity of no more chapters (ok, so only 2 reviews were got for the last chapter, but she reviewed number 1 as well. I'd better get 2 reviews for this chapter or… ok, I don't what, but something bad.

--

Chapter 3, methinks.

Buruma's smile only widened as she rushed up to her friends. "Guess what?" Juuhachigou sighed and raised an eyebrow in question. "I know his friend!!" The blonde femme winced at her friend's squealing.

"His friend, eh? Wow, next thing you know you guys will be married," Buruma scowled at the sarcasm dripping from Juu's voice. After months of admiring him in the athletics team photo in the yearbook, meeting his friend was a big deal for her. Juu had always been critical of her crush on the guy. It annoyed Buruma to no end, just because Juuhachigou didn't want to get involved with someone didn't mean the rest of the world had to be lonely for the rest of their collective lives. She didn't entirely blame her friend, though. She was going through a hard time, with her mother. Seeing her father fall apart because he was so attached to the dying woman. Juu just didn't want to go through that. She sighed.

"I'll have you know that knowing Damien practically ensures getting to know my dream guy by the end of the term," she sniffed haughtily and the taller girl suppressed a giggle.

"You don't even know anything about him, B!" For all you know, he's gay, or an axe murderer or something," Buruma rolled her eyes and opened her mouth but Juu spoke again before she could. "Seriously, guys are shit, B, and I don't want you to get hurt."

Kuririn coughed pointedly, putting on a look of mock offence at her generalisation of the male species. She poked him in the side of the head before turning down the hallway to her locker, leaving Kuririn to walk with a sulking Buruma. They walked in silence for a while, until Buruma gave a loud, exasperated sigh, and stalked off in the opposite direction, leaving Kuririn to blink owlishly and wonder what he'd done.

Buruma shoved her books in her locker and slammed the door shut angrily. Sometimes her friends just pissed her off so much. It was none of Juu's business if he didn't turn out to be all she expected. In truth, she doubted he would. She expected a lot, but would still be happy if he didn't meet all the standards she'd set for him. She knew expecting him to be perfect was just her being an irrational teenage girl with a crush, and she prided herself on her intelligence and rational mind, so every chance she got, she told herself not to expect too much.

Of course, it was all very well to say that you won't expect perfection, but actually convincing a 15 year old, hormone flooded psyche that the guy they've been lusting after is a flawed human being is something entirely else.

Grabbing a few books from her bag, Buruma slunk off to the table she sat at with her friends. Chichi was already sitting there, crunching away at an apple, she lifted one slender arm and waved, patting the seat beside her with her other hand. Buruma slid into the seat, resting her elbows on the table and sighing, chin in the palm of her hands.

"What's wrong, B?"

"Nothing… everything. I'm just having a bad day. First of all, I'm in no one's classes. Second of all, I'm just tired. And lastly, Juu's been being nasty about you-know-who." Chichi sighed, a little sick of hearing about 'you-know-who'.

"Are you ever going to find out his name?" At this, Buruma brightened, sitting up straight and smiling.

"I know his friend!! His best best best friend!!!" She almost squealed out the last sentence, her face flushed and excited as she grinned at Chichi, who raised an eyebrow, but decided to humour her best friend.

"Wow, his best friend…. But you didn't think to ask his name?" She averted her clear blue eyes and Chi could tell at once that she'd been too nervous. "B, for someone so outgoing, you have yourself in a big tangle over this one guy." They both sighed in frustration.

Buruma lifted her head at the sound of Juuhachigou's voice, and narrowed her eyes as the blonde sat down across from her. She could tell this was going to be another stupid, immature fight that would probably last the day and then be forgotten. But it would be awkward while it lasted.

--

Yeah, and I got sick of typing there so you get a really short chapter. My excuse is that I didn't get enough reviews. You'd better review this time or I really will just abandon this. Start another fic and forget allllll about Too Young To Care. Review, my minions. Review or die.


	4. Oooo, twins!

I am bored and don't want to write this at the moment, so don't expect anything spectacular. (review it anyway, though. I'd really like to be getting more than 2 reviews per chapter *hint hint*) And I can't remember whether I said anyone caught Buruma's bus aside from her so from now on, no one does unless I change my mind through the course of this chapter.

Chapter 4

The rest of the day breezed by, Buruma chatting to Damien and gazing dreamily at Mr. I-Don't-Know-Your-Name-But-Am-Utterly-In-Love-With-You. Juuhachigou spent the majority of her time either sulking or whining to Kuririn at how Buruma was going to end up pregnant at 16 and completely ruin her life. Kuririn jokingly pointed out that even if she did get pregnant at 16 she had enough money to live comfortably anyway, and a baby-obsessed mother that would be more than glad to take care of the little accident. Juu stopped talking to him for the rest of the day, preferring to whine to Chichi, who at least didn't refute her, just nodded and concentrated on something else. Goku managed to remain oblivious of the tension Juuhachigou was spreading to the other members of their 'group'.

Buruma sat atop the four and a half foot red brick wall that encircled the school property, cutting off the prisoners of education from those free to roam the streets and reside in their homes. Fortunately, students of the school were now gushing out of the 2 gaps in the brick cage, free to retreat to their homes until the next day. Her legs were swinging freely, the heels of her black lace-ups thumping against the wall rhythmically. Bored, she was folding her homework into various origami shapes. She had accumulated a crane, cat, flower and balloon covered in math formulae and two boxes with various HTML codes from her computer science class. Despite having lived in Australia for most of her life, her parents had not neglected to keep her in touch with her Japanese heritage, although most of what she knew was simple things from when she was a small child.

She was unusual looking, to say the least. Her father was Japanese and she'd managed to inherit his slightly darker skin tone along with blue hair and startling blue eyes that could only belong to her American mother. She didn't fit in in Japan and she didn't fit in here. She sighed, for such a normally confident person she had a habit of getting down on herself a lot. She was a highly moody girl, prone to violent outbursts of temper no matter how much she tried to control it.

She was just mulling over her temper when something –or rather, someone- caught her eye. It was Him. He was standing, leaning against the brick wall and talking to someone she couldn't see, as His body was obscuring her view. She didn't mind. She sighed dreamily and watched him. Her eyes roamed up his toned body, noting the casual way he lent against the wall, shifted his weight slightly every so often, ran one hand through his dark, upswept hair –she could have sworn his hair was longer- and now turned to look at a girl who approached them, nodding first to him and then to whomever he was conversing with.

Now was the time. Buruma leaned over and tapped the girl standing in front of her on the shoulder. She recognised the chocolate brown braids as belonging to a girl in her math class last year.

"Hey, Claire, do you know his name?" She gestured over to where He was standing. Claire narrowed her eyes, thinking hard.

"I think that's Aaron… or is it - yeah, it's Aaron, why?" Buruma just smiled, telling the other girl there was no real reason behind her enquiry, she was simply curious. She turned her attention back to Aaron, as he was now to be known. Now that she'd got his name, she was on a roll, desperately trying to think up any excuse, no matter how lame, to speak to the object of her affections. Casting a quick look down at her origami creations, she swept them off the wall into the gardens below. Oops, now she had no math homework, whatever should she do?

Pushing herself off the wall, she grabbed her bag and slunk over to where Aaron was talking. Standing behind him for a few moments, she cleared her throat. He payed no mind and she cleared it again, more audibly and he cast a quick glance over his well-muscled shoulder. She grinned at him nervously.

"Hi. Aaron is it? Uhm… I'm in your Advanced Math class and I don't have the homework, I was wondering if you could let me copy it down?" He looked at her blankly with those enthralling ebon eyes. She shifted her weight and tugged at her plaid skirt anxiously. "Uh… I sat next to Damien, you were on the end?" Her voice cracked slightly, she felt like a fool. And yet, his eyes lit up and he laughed lightly. Gorgeous. Delectable. Absolutely perfect.

"Sorry, you're not looking for me," she frowned. Who else would she be looking for? No one could compare with Aaron. "Would you have thought, before talking to me now, that my hair was a little longer?" He gestured above his head and she frowned, nodding slightly. He smiled warmly. "You want by brother. Beji, this girl needs math homework," she blinked and he looked at her "I don't even do Advanced Math. He's the nerd." She blinked and turned her head, her jaw going slack. There were 2 of them. Identical. 2. 2. Identical. 2. So whom had she been fawning over? The gorgeous, friendly Aaron or the scowling, seductive 'Beji' as Aaron had referred to him? She blinked again.

"Uh… hi, I'm Buruma and I'm in your, uh, math class. Can I, uhm, have our math homework?" He nodded silently and turned around to pull a folder out of his bag, handing it to her without a word, his dark expression never faltering. It was a little off-putting, when she had just been talking to the identical, cheerful Aaron. She set about copying down in her book what was written precisely in his tiny, dark writing, glancing up occasionally to watch a girl with dark pink hair whisper in his ear. She frowned. 

"His name's Bejita, since he's obviously not going to tell you himself," Buruma glanced up at Aaron, who was now speaking to her, obviously feeling a little left out of whatever was going on between Bejita and the personage that was obviously his girlfriend. "That's Ami, she likes to embarrass my brother by publicly displaying affection towards him and confuse certain people by hugging me." Buruma raised an eyebrow and closed her book, handing the folder back to the rather annoyed Bejita who was preoccupied with attempting to pry Ami's lithe form from his arm. Buruma stood up as the bus pulled into the stop.

"Uh, nice to meet you," she mumbled vaguely as she walked toward the bus. Nice, yes, but confusing and a little frustrating also.

--

Yay! Chapter! And it's longer, and you all better review lots. Please. I really like reviews.


	5. Bah! Suckness

Wow, 3 reviews! Just want to let you all know, that I REALLY appreciate that. And yes, I disturb you with my strange twinly twinness. As a reward for the reviews, I'll TRY to make this chapter nice and long.

**Chapter 5**

Juuhachigou dropped her canvas bag on the beige carpet of the lounge room. Not that much lounging went on in there, in fact, the only lounging that went on at all in the house was in her bedroom. She wasn't a messy person, yet her bedroom was in a constant state of disarray, in part to compensate for the stark, clean feel to the rest of what was supposed to be a home, and in part due to the fact that she was rarely there to clean it. Most of her time was spent visiting her mother at the hospital. She sighed. Soon she'd have plenty of time to tidy up.

As much as she hated to acknowledge the fact, Juuhachigou's mother was dying. Slowly, in a lot of pain. She'd had cancer for a while now, lung cancer. People often asked if she was a smoker. Juu always snapped back that her mother would never do something like that to herself, that this was just a cruel twist of fate. Repeatedly praying for her lost cause had stripped the girl of any faith in an almighty deity. Her mother's plight had also stripped her of any social life.

That was another complication with her possible 'relationship' with Kuririn. She never had any time. What time she did have she generally spent fretting over her mother's condition, and how she was doing without her daughter's constant presence by her bedside. 

In truth, her mother appreciated the peace, and chance to rest as much as she appreciated her daughter's devotion. She was a dying woman and most of the time she just wanted to sleep, tired and in pain she hadn't the patience to deal with her daughter's emotional problems.

She stood up. The house emanated a silence so loud it hurt. Her shoes clunked against the white tiles of the kitchen area, so she slid them off and placed them on the counter, padding silently to the fridge. Yogurt in one hand, shoes in the other, she silently made her way up the carpeted stairs to the asylum of her bedroom.

She tiptoed gingerly over the scattered garments that lined her bedroom floor, then collapsed onto her bed and closed her eyes. She didn't want to think.

((A/N: this is really hard for me… I like to make each chapter focussing on one person))

-*-

The door clicked shut behind her. Chichi could hear the television blaring from the living room so she wandered in. Her elder cousin was curled up on the sofa before the television, reading a magazine.

Chichi had been living with her 24-year-old cousin for two weeks now, and her patience was wearing thin. After antagonising her father for three days straight and managing to perceive herself as the wronged, she had decided that they needed a break, that she needed to go somewhere. Erika had seemed like the most reasonable option, she was close enough for the actual moving process not to be even more of a fuss, she was old enough to take care of Chichi legally, and she was a trusted relative, one that Chichi liked.

Unfortunately, Chichi's liking of her cousin was breaking down. Basically, she had become witness to the young woman's sloppiness. Erika was incapable of cleaning. She couldn't cook, either, and Chichi had been doing that since she arrived. She was growing better at it, and enjoyed the activity but it was the principle of the thing: Erika was the carer, Chichi was the caree and should not be cooking for the carer.

How Erika kept her figure when unable to cook a healthy, non-greasy meal was beyond the younger girl. However, she managed to stay fit enough to work as a dietician, vending useful advice whilst skilfully ignoring it when it came to her own life. Being a dietician was not something Chichi would have thought required you to be attractive, but she soon learnt that people simply did not take health and fitness advice from an obese, pimply man with a large nose. It was just one of those things. Well, the obese and pimply part was probably quite reasonable, as they were spouting dietary advice, but the large nose really had nothing to do with diet and yet Erika had informed her quite solemnly that a nice nose was a necessity.

Erika looked up.

"You got homework, Cha-cha?" the ebon haired girl frowned at the use of the nickname. It irritated her to no end.  It wasn't even a proper nickname, it was no shorter than her real name and only served to irritate the shit out of her.

"Yeah, I'll go do it now," she left the presence of her cousin in measured silence, making not a sound on the tiled floor.

--

I failed on the long chapter thing, eh? Hehe… he……. he…….. anyway, I didn't like all the jumping around, and I wasn't writing well. (not that I ever really do) and I'm quite sure any readers I may have would prefer short, reasonably-written chapters than long pieces of crap? I know I do.


	6. Whoosh, emotions and crap

She frowned in the mirror. Something wasn't right. She looked good, she was going to a party with her friends, she had a loving family and a comfortable life. Yet, somehow, everything seemed… empty. Hollow. False, even.

Everything felt plastic-like and fake. Talking to her friends felt like a charade, family was a game, and her love life was an elaborate fantasy she played out in her desensitised mind over and over again to the point where she almost couldn't distinguish between reality and the story she told herself every private moment.

She was ruining her relationship with her friends and she knew it. Juuhachigou had been told her mother had three days to live, and had broken down in tears in front of them and she had just stood there. Just stood there unthinking, as the world faded away into shades of grey and her cheeks felt cold, her fingers numb and nothing swirling about in her brain. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. The world was nothing, her life was nothing.

She felt guilty for feeling this, she was so lucky, had such a great life, was blessed with so much, and yet she felt so numb? She appreciated nothing of what she had been given. Her gifts, her talents, everything was wasted on her. She was an ungrateful wretch. Anyone else would revel in such a life as she had, anyone else would throw their arms wide open and embrace the world, and yet she was huddled in a corner, trying simply to retreat.

She shook her head, closed her eyes, then opened them. She stared blankly at the pretty face in the mirror, the empty, meaningless smile, and tilted her head. It wasn't her, she didn't recognise the face that stared back at her. It was a stranger.

She walked out of the room.

He stared down at her solemnly. The unnatural smile was still plastered on her face. He hated this. He wanted to take her to the hospital, but she would hate him for that. Sometimes he thought maybe that would be best, if she hated him then he could admit he hated her and it would be over. But somehow, for all he hated her, for all he was so angry that she did this to him, he couldn't betray her trust.

He sat and watched the slow rise and fall of her chest. As long as she was alive it would all be ok. He looked down at the syringe, lying on the floor, and shuddered. Why did she do this to herself? Why did she want to hurt herself? He didn't understand. He could hear footsteps outside the bedroom door and snapped his head around to stare, pushing the used syringe under the bed with one hand. The footsteps stopped and his breath caught in his throat. Then they started and he let it out with a sigh, turning back to the prone figure of his girlfriend.

Then he made up his mind. He was sick of wasting his time with her. She was a bitch. A filthy whore who only spent time with him so that she could boast that she had a boyfriend. He hated her. He hated her hated her hated her. As much satisfaction as injecting her again and letting her die would bring, there would be consequences. Calling an ambulance had no bad repercussions, except upon her. And she was the one he wanted to feel the shockwaves.

He picked up the mobile phone sitting in front of him on the dark blue carpet. He had thought about this for too long. It was time to make a decision. So he picked up the phone and threw away what he believed to be his last chance at anyone caring. He had no one now. He needed no one.

She sat on the couch, sulking. Her two best friends had been acting so off lately. She could understand on one part, but both of them? There was no reason for both of them to be acting like their lives were destroyed. She had it far worse than pining after a guy.

"Argh!" She slammed her fist down on the arm of the chair with a frustrated cry, mingled with tears. She threw the magazines that littered the coffee table across the room furiously. Life was awful. Why was everyone acting so insane? She supposed it was the whole teenager thing, combined with Juu's troubles.

She clenched her fists and stared at the blank screen of the television. She was alone. They had been supposed to go out today. Shopping, the movies, but the other two had both decided they didn't want to come, and she wasn't going to go with just the boys, she'd end out watching some crappy action movie and then spending the rest of the time in the town's huge sporting goods centre.

Why was everything so fucking screwed up? She just wanted everything to be normal, but it seemed she was the only one capable of acting like a well-adjusted human being.

Crystalline tears flowed down her cheeks and onto the bedcovers. Her shoulders shook and her wails filled the enclosed space of the room. She looked around helplessly, tears clouding her vision. Her brother, standing stiff, trying so hard to keep the tears from falling from his cold eyes. Her father hunched in a chair, facing the wall, crying silently.

"Three days," she screamed to no one, "they said she had three days." And then there was silence. Her brother stood stiff, her father cried silently, and she stared off hopelessly. Normally when such a silence occurred her mother would break it with a light-hearted joke.

She couldn't break the silence now.

She would never break the silence again.

--

This one isn't so long either, hehe… but I thought that would be the best place to leave the chapter. A deceptive amount of stuff happened in this chapter, despite it being an emotions excerpt. REVIEW!! REVIEW OR DIE!!


	7. My subconscious demanded babies, there w...

Cold blue eyes stared unseeing out the window, into the darkening sky above. Her hands twisted around the narrow plastic arm of the chair repeatedly, in an automatic action. Her father had left an hour ago, presumably to drink, but Juunanagou had offered to stay with her. It was rare for him to show affection towards his twin, but in a time such as this, even he demonstrated caring. She knew he was hurting too. She turned her head listlessly to gaze around the lonely waiting room. Someone caught her attention from the corner of her eye and she turned around in her chair, wiping away some stray tears with her sleeve as she did so.

Her eyes widened slightly, the guy standing at the desk uncomfortably while the receptionist sifted through files on the computer was one of Buruma's crushes. She knew those guys about as well as Buruma now; everyone in their group did, as the girl talked of nothing else but them. Ever since she had discovered there were two of them, her hopes had skyrocketed, she now saw herself as having a chance of getting together with one, after all, if one didn't like her that way, the other was sure to!

Juu wasn't so sure she agreed with this theory, one of them was both taken and a sociopath (she hadn't yet looked into the validity of this particular statement, but during her research had discovered that one of the twins was being forced to see a psychologist) and the other seemed too good to be true, which meant he was either the one seeing the psychologist (for murderous rages, of course) or he was gay.

Juuhachigou tended to apply the latter to the cheerful Aaron, simply due to how close to killing his unfortunate girlfriend the other one looked at times. Judging by how generally pissed off this guy looked; he was the one called Bejita. She wondered why he was here, and if she should take an out-of-school-uniform photo for poor, obsessive Buruma.

He moved off, after hearing some directions from the receptionist, and Juuhachigou decided to follow, after mulling over just how long her brother could spend sitting on the floor near the vending machine.

--

He stared at her. The dark smudges beneath her eyes, eyes that once seemed to him as deep a blue as the night sky, but now resembled more closely smoke. The way even her skin took on a greyish tint, the way her hands no longer resembled the elegant form of a pianist's but now seemed to be bony, spider-like creatures, resting predatorily on the clean white sheets that obscured her curves. Her purple hair, too, looked grey, her blonde roots visible now, as they never before were. He hadn't even known she died her hair, because she did the same with her precise eyebrows.

All that once made her pretty now accentuated her position in the hospital. Her pronounced cheekbones made her cheeks look hollow, her full lips looked swollen, her large eyes frightened, like a deer in headlights.

"Your parents will get here soon," it was meant to be consoling, a promise of comfort, but the way she turned her head as though slapped made him realise his mistake.

"No they won't."

"The hospital called-"

"It doesn't matter. Fuck it Bejita, what do you think they'll do now that they know I've been doing drugs? Run over here and hug me and ask if I'm all right? They did that with my sister, and do you want to know why you haven't met her?" He remained silent, staring down at his hands. "It's because she's in jail. Jail. She's in there because of this, drugs, she got in trouble for possession, then just went on doing them, because we don't have the money for some fancy de-tox treatment, not with these school fees, and eventually she had to get into dealing to pay for her own addiction. So my parents are just going to assume I'm a no hope loser like Ally and let me sort myself out. They'll fucking hate me, Beji, you…" she stopped now, turned to stare out the window, bit her lip nervously. "You were the only one I thought I could trust. I should've known better, ne? I should've just known that mister tough guy would never sacrifice his image for me. Is that what it came down to? I was getting too close, you didn't want people to get the wrong idea, so you figured you'd just let my parents deal with me, figured they'd assume you were a 'bad influence' and ban me from seeing you?

"The worst bit is, I can't even hate you for it. No matter how hard I try, I just can't hate you. Sure, you're a bit of a dickhead, and you've got more problems than my math textbook, but you're the only guy I ever clicked with. The only guy I ever really felt like I could talk to, like I could confide in."

He turned his head away now, to the door. He wanted to leave. He didn't want this sort of emotional crap from her. He wasn't feeling anything of what she was saying to him. All he was feeling was that she was becoming one of the emotional saps he so despised. No, she was becoming something worse. She was becoming an emotional sap that needed an addiction to feel like her life was stable, and emotional sap who had no self control, who was destroying their body and only cared that someone might not like her for it, not that she was killing herself.

"I don't want you to feel like that. I want you to shut the fuck up and acknowledge that you did this to yourself and they were going to find out sooner or later, I just sped things up a bit. Before you got even more stuck in this sort of thing. You did this to yourself. Don't try and shift the blame to me, because I don't want to know about it."

He glared at her sullenly and she gave a small, slow smile. "I was going to quit for you. That was the last of it." She watched his lip curl and she knew he didn't believe her. She closed her eyes and sighed. She was aware he wouldn't believe her no matter what she said. The thing was, it was true this time, it was actually true. She had been going to quit, not so much for him, perhaps.

Her hands clenched as he stalked out the door, and a single tear rolled down her pale cheek. She hoped it wasn't true, she'd been hoping it wasn't true since she first suspected, but it was even more important now that he was gone. She hoped like hell she wasn't pregnant.

---

Woah. Where the fuck did that come from?? That uh… wasn't in the plan folks. (Mind you, neither was Juuhachigou's mother dying this early on) Oh well, that's what happened when I am unbelievably bored and not really paying attention. Maybe it's just the fact that babies are so adorable, and my subconscious is telling me the story needs more adorable babies. I think I might up the rating to PG-13 now, as I seem to be slowly and steadily losing control of my swearing habit.

PS: Review or die. It's not that hard, and the former is the most pain free option. Tell me if my story needs adorable babies or I'm just subconsciously wishing to be a 14 year old mother.


	8. Mmm nerds

You guys weren't supposed to take the 14-year-old mother thing seriously, y'know… And Marie, it wouldn't be very fun if they got together with no complications, now would it? Besides, this is my story, and I can do whatever I like and you can't stop me. I can even make Bejita be all over-intelligent and freakishly good at school. Come to think of it, I've already put him in all Buruma's classes and I like smart guys. Yay! Nerds!

--

Juuhachigou smiled sadly, her slender legs curled up to her chest, chin resting on her knees. She hadn't been able to face her own home with the knowledge that her mother would never be returning, and was spending the night with Chichi and Buruma, at the latter's house.

Normally a stay at Buruma's house was a great event for all concerned, but this evening it had been a solemn affair. There were no movies to stay up watching all night, no hysterically modified games to play. There were just three friends with sleeping bags and a tub of cookie dough. Of course, under normal conditions, even this would have been a recipe for hilarity, but this was a grave time.

So they just sat, silently, taking the occasional teaspoon of cookie dough.

"I didn't get to say goodbye. They told us she still had time and we didn't get to say goodbye." There was an awkward silence. Neither of the other two girls knew what to say to something like that. "You don't have to say anything. I just like to know you're listening." Buruma smiled slightly and nodded. If there was on thing they could do, it was listen.

Juu looked around her, at the drawn, unhappy faces of her friends and realised this wasn't what she wanted from coming here. She didn't want to mull over the tragedy that had befallen her family, she came here to lift the weight on her shoulders, to be happy. So she spoke. "Hey, B, guess who I saw at the hospital?"

Both her friends sat up a little straighter at the change in tone. "I don't know, who?"

"Bejita. And that girlfriend of his, she was sick, and they broke up." Buruma's cerulean eyes widened at this statement, and her mouth opened slightly.

"Ami. Her name was Ami and… they… broke up????" Juu nodded and her friend's face split into a wide grin. She giggled lightly. "Juu, that is the best thing! Aaron's just too nice, I suspect he's gay." Both Chichi and Juuhachigou struggled to smother giggles at that statement, which echoed so clearly their own thoughts.

The brief reprieve from Juu's grief, however, was short-lived. As Chichi and Buruma fell to talking about boys once more, trying their best, she knew, to make Juu happy, to keep her mind off her mother's death, she curled up in her sleeping bag, staring blankly at the wall.

Nothing could take her mind off her mother for long, this was silly. She sighed and closed her eyes, trying to block out her friends' attempts to lift her spirits.

--

Ami blinked disbelievingly at the stressed figures before her. Her youngish, suit-clad father was standing with one tanned hand resting on the back of the grey-green chair Ami's mother was sitting in. They had always been disappointed in their children, they weren't the sort of people that one expected to have teenage druggie, pregnant children who failed school and assaulted gas station attendants. No, they were the sort of people you expected to have blonde, well-groomed children getting OP 2's and settling down with a young businessman at the age of 23 to have 2 alienated children who spent all their time in a childcare centre learning to be smart, well-groomed, well-behaved and responsible 3-year-olds. Instead they ended up with Ally and Ami, teenage delinquents.

They weren't rich, they were well-off, but not rich. They liked to appear rich, and sent their children to well-respected schools, bought expensive cars and fancy houses in good neighbourhoods, but then were left with enormous debt and little money for luxuries. Of course, money would have to be put away for an expensive holiday to keep up appearances, but when it came down to things like drugs, they didn't have the money for treatment.

Mrs. Kemp rubbed her neck with one bony hand, bracelets jangling. "Ami dear, we've thought about this long and hard and we just feel that it will be best for you. It's not far, you could visit on weekends or holidays." Her daughter turned her face away. She couldn't believe this. Her parents were sending her to reform school. REFORM SCHOOL. Reform fucking school. Well, that was just great, first her boyfriend, now her home and everyone she knew. This was going to be so much fun.

--

Thud. Bejita looked up from his physics textbook at the bored face of his identical twin. Aaron (A/N: That WAS his name, right?) pointed at a pile of books now sitting on Bejita's desk.

"I'm not doing your work, if that's what you're thinking." Aaron rolled his eyes.

"Contrary to what you consider popular opinion, I do not have a pink and brown striped binder and pictures of male celebrities taped to my exercise books," Bejita raised on eyebrow and his twin glared. The resemblance between them was even more startling when Aaron glared.

"So… why exactly are you giving these to me? I really do hold no affection for Orlando Bloom."

"I was at the hospital, because I was supposed to tell you mother has taken Lori to the doctor leaving father to cook, so you were supposed to get take-out. Of course, you weren't there, but that girl with the strange hair… Buruma, I think she is?" Bejita nodded slowly.

"So, you stole her books to ogle elves?"

"Let me finish. She was there with her friends or something, and she left her books behind and I figured since you're in most of her classes you could give them to her on Monday."

"Actually, you should have left them there. There's a math assignment due on Monday and she won't get it done now." Aaron frowned in thought, then the corner of his mouth lifted slightly in a smirk that had gotten him several dates back when Ami still didn't know Bejita had a twin.

"We-ell, I think she might like it if you took them round to her house… your name is written in all the margins." The younger of the twins (by 3 minutes) blinked owlishly. He hadn't been expecting that. He wasn't sure he was exactly comfortable with the idea of this freaky girl he barely knew having a crush on him right when he'd broken up with his girlfriend. His mind raced to think of something to say that wasn't related to Buruma Briefs.

"So… uh, what's up with Lori?" Lori was the younger sister of Bejita and Aaron, and looked nothing like them. In contrast to their spiky dark hair, Lori sported a more vibrant version of her mother's blonde ringlets. She was a bit of a hypochondriac, but somehow neither her mother nor her father had yet managed to notice.

Aaron rolled his eyes, "Oh I don't know, she probably pretended to have a cardiac arrest, or came down with a sudden case of rubella. Or perhaps it's mad cow disease this time; that would be fitting." He snickered. Despite being the 'nice twin' he had his share of not so flattering tendencies. One of them was picking on the favourite child, Lori.

He always got the feeling that somehow he was the one who got left out, before Lori, Bejita had been the favourite child, in his eyes. He was the one that demanded attention all the time. He was the one that could get away with hitting people by saying 'sorry' and then biting the child when any adults left the room. Actually, Bejita had always been the problem child. Or, as his parents had preferred to put it "just assertive, with a few difficulties channelling that assertiveness affectively" what that basically meant was "he's on medication for ADD, there's no sleep for the endless tantrums". Despite this, he'd always been coddled, and it was decided that he'd grown out of it. So, of course, they decided they could handle another child and Lori came into being. This meant Bejita was no longer the favourite, but Aaron held no sympathy for him. Anyone who could regain a few days of the loving limelight by throwing a brick at a teacher got no sympathy from Aaron.

Gah. He hated his twisted family.

---

Look, it's long… kind of… and no, that doesn't make up for however long it's been since the last chapter. Basically, I lost interest, and then lost the floppy. Oh well, you'll live. It's not a story worth stressing over.


	9. Review you poopheads

Well, fine, I'll just write my story for DB then shall I? Just so you know, I'm a ridiculous person and become easily offended when no one reviews. I'd much rather you flamed me than ignored me, then at least I have a real excuse to whine. So now, to punish you all for NOT reviewing, I will write a boring crappy chapter.

--

The television glowed softly, casting unnatural shadows across the two girls' faces. There was a guilty look in both their eyes, as though they shouldn't be there. That was what they both were thinking. The third had left earlier, around 11pm and they both were feeling a nagging sensation at the back of their minds, as though they should be suffering just as much as she was.

The ebon-haired one picked at her polka-dot pyjama pants uncomfortably. The red varnished nails of the other tapped nervously at her unnaturally toothpaste-commercial-white teeth. 

"Look, Buruma, we obviously can't do anything about what's happened and sitting here feeling like shit isn't going to make Juu feel any better, especially when she's not here."

She sighed, "I know, Chi, but it just feels… wrong, you know? Like somehow we shouldn't be having fun when one of our best friends has just lost someone… it doesn't seem like the right thing to do. I know, I know, she's not going to know if we stay up all night gossiping and watching movies, and being sad while she was here didn't make her feel connected to us anyway but I still just feel bad."

Chichi flopped onto her back and stared at the mottled-green ceiling of Buruma's room. A good deal of her most cherished childhood memories took place in this room, with Juuhachigou and Buruma. She could remember helping paint the ceiling bright pink, when they were 10. She could also remember the look on the Briefs' faces when they'd seen the 'work of art' as the three girls had put it.

She remembered a lot of things about this room, and all of them involved both of her best friends. It just didn't feel right to have a sleepover without Juu. The soft murmur of the television stopped and the room was steeped in silence. She chewed on her bottom lip. They had to do something to keep their minds from straying into melancholy. She pushed herself up onto her elbows and looked across at Buruma.

"B, we need to DO something. We're only going to feel worse and worse if we just sit here. Something drastic, to keep our minds busy." 

"Makeover? Drastic makeover?" Chichi wasn't entirely sure that would keep their minds occupied and she frowned slightly.

"How drastic are we talking here?" She watched as Buruma stood up and wandered into her ensuite, something the less materially-blessed Chichi had always been jealous of. Her once again vibrant returned brandishing a pair of scissors, her wallet, and a dangerous glint in her cerulean eyes.

"Well, I have scissors and a blow-dryer and the chemist down the street sells hair dye, so I think we're talking pretty drastic." Chichi grinned evilly, the glint in her eyes as dangerous as that in her friend's.

"You know, I've always fancied myself a red-head," Chichi smiled, flicking her hair dramatically. "And you…" she paused and studied her friend critically "a blonde. Definitely a blonde." Buruma frowned, obviously not convinced she should transform herself into a normally-coloured teenage girl. "You know, Ami used to be a blonde."

With that comment, Buruma began seriously considering it, throwing a long chocolate brown suede coat on over pyjamas and slipping her feet into a pair of quiet sneakers. "Chi, just grab a coat from the wardrobe and we can slip out, my parents will either be asleep, or assume we're just grabbing a midnight snack." Chichi nodded and shrugged on a red coat, stepped into her slippers and left the room with Buruma.

--

Juuhachigou rested her forehead on the cool windowpane of the car. She felt guilty. Another negative emotion to add to her growing collection. She knew Buruma and Chichi blamed themselves for her getting upset and leaving but it really wasn't their fault. It was just that nothing could make her feel better and so there was really no point in trying, in sitting around pretending to be happy again. So she had called her father and he had been all too glad to take her home. So now they drove through the silent night, the occasional pool of yellow from the streetlights making her wince, and she wondered why it wasn't raining, why the heavens wouldn't let her feel like it was just a movie.

She wanted it to rain, so that she could tell herself it was just too cliché to be real, and then, when she finally accepted it was true, at least other people would be miserable because of the rain.

Death brings out the sadism in us all.

---

Ha! It's short too! That's what you get for NOT REVIEWING, you SCUM.

Review or die you big stupid-heads.


	10. Bejita? A dickhead? Wow XD

Thank you, that's all I wanted.

---

She stared in the mirror guiltily. She brushed a platinum blonde ringlet from her startling blue eyes and frowned. She pushed the ringlet back into her face, to obscure her unusual blue eyebrows. She felt so ridiculously stupid. She felt stupidly ridiculous. 

The pale pink rays of sunrise were just beginning to seep into the room, obscured partially by the tightly shut Venetian blinds. Orange rays of light fell across her pale face, across the ground and the mess that littered it. Slicing.

Slicing the boxes that once contained hair dye, slicing a stained pink towel, slicing curling irons scattered across the carpet, slicing Chichi's sleeping form in 1, 2, 3… 4 pieces. She stretched her legs out straight in front of her and felt the warm sun slice her legs off at the knees.

Pulling herself to her feet, she padded across the room and opened the blinds, squinting as the warm sunlight flooded her face. She peered down from her second storey bedroom to the road. Across the road a middle aged businessman wandered out in his pyjamas to collect the newspaper. A magpie eyed the grass suspiciously from a large tree in Buruma's front yard. It was all perfectly normal and perfectly boring. Perfectly perfect. She felt so… sheltered. For most of her life she'd lived with this perfectly perfect world of perfect clipped green lawns and perfect two storey five bedroom homes surrounding her.

However, she was acutely aware that if she ever tried to leave, she wouldn't make it. She just wouldn't know what to do in the real world. She turned around to wait for Chichi to wake up. At least Chichi looked good, even if she didn't. Buruma Briefs, master stylist, had given Chichi a very fashionable layered look to her shoulders, and they'd agreed on a faint red tinge. She was wishing now she hadn't done something so drastic on herself.

She heard the doorbell ring and glanced at her clock radio. Was it 9 already? Sure, she'd spent a long time sitting on the floor, but it hadn't been THAT long. She hurriedly ran into the bathroom and pulled on a pair of jeans and a pale blue t-shirt before running down the stairs as the doorbell rang again.

She flung open the door and just stood there stupidly. One of the twins, she still couldn't tell them apart, was standing on her front step uncomfortably, holding what appeared to be her binder. She blinked owlishly. He shifted his weight uncomfortably and she looked behind him. She couldn't see a car, which meant that he walked here.

"Uh… hi…" She took a wild guess "Bejita?" He looked a little startled but actually kind of pleased, he probably got called the wrong name all the time.

"Yeah, Bejita… what the fuck happened to your hair?" Her face went bright red with embarrassment, and she patted her hair nervously.

"I… bleached and curled it and cut it… it was a spur of the moment thing. Are those my books?" He held them out to her silently and she took them then stood holding them in the doorway. "So… you live around here?" He looked uncomfortable.

"Yes. What's the time? I think I have to be going soon. Now, maybe even." Her face fell. It was blatantly obvious he just didn't want to be here, with her.

"Buruma?" She whipped around to see her mother standing in the hallway in her fluffy pink dressing gown. "Buruma! What have you done to your beautiful hair???!" She ran over and picked up a ringlet then dropped it back down against her daughter's face with a sigh. "Well, I can't do anything about it, and I suppose short hair is fashionable." Buruma let out a sigh, but it was not really her mother's reaction she had been worrying about. She was still stressing over what her father would think of it. Bunny peered over Buruma's shoulder ((A/N: Right now I'm going to explain something. Buruma was born in Japan and spent the first couple of years of her life there. Her father is Japanese. Her mother is American, so she has a non-Japanese name and is blonde and such.)) at Bejita. "Oh, and who is this, Buruma? Have you found yourself a new boyfriend already? He's so cute, come in, come in!"

When Bejita just glared at her darkly, she ushered Buruma aside and took him by the arm, leading him inside.

"Look, lady, I have to go now, let go of my fucking arm."

"Oh! You shouldn't speak like that! It's not polite, now sit down and I'll make you all some coffee." Buruma watched her mother scurry off and smiled apologetically. She didn't get the empathy she would have from Aaron. Instead she got a (kind of sexy, really) scowl as though it was her fault.

"What the fuck is wrong with your mother?" Her eyes widened at his accusatory manner. In an instant his scowl no longer looked sexy, it just showed he had an attitude problem. She scowled back and stood up.

"You can go now, thank you very much. When you come into someone's house as a fricking guest it's not considered good manners to insult their mother you arsehole." He sneered and stood up, making it obvious that he didn't want to be here in the first place, and stalked out.

She slumped down on the sofa. "Why do I have such awful taste in guys?"

--

That was ridiculously short. I ran out of ideas at the end, I always do. Anyway, review or die. Not only will you die, but also you will get a 100 word chapter about nonsense so pah. And no, DB, you are my good and faithful reviewer, not scum.


	11. FFN lies to me! MSWord says it's over 20...

Kelly! XD You crack me up. (And just so you know, the bonsai kitten thing is a big hoax….) And now for a chapter. With EMAIL. I love email. Email me. Anyway, this chapter also has BRICK THROWING ACTION. And trust me, no matter how strong you are; a brick to the head will still hurt. And everyone's human. So it hurts more if you're not all Saiya-jiny and stuff. (That will actually have relevance later in the chapter) And yes, I skip stuff out. Like, whole weeks of stuff. AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Unname83@hotmail.com

Re: Feeling down…

Hey. Do you even use this email anymore? I haven't talked to you online for a long time, but you already know that.

I've been kinda cold lately, I suppose, towards you and everyone else, but none of you really know what I'm going through. You can't, not really. Nobody's really been much help, but I don't blame any of you for it. I just need to detach myself for a while, think things over alone. Of course, my father would never concede that I might know what's best for me at the moment, and he's decided I'm becoming too isolated, and I shouldn't let what's happened affect my relationships. At the moment though, I don't really have any desire to save my relationships.

I'm rambling, aren't I? To cut a long story short, Dad thinks I should be associating more and has decided I need to get out, but I don't want to see everyone. I don't think I can cope with the noise, and with all the people trying to comfort me.

What I'm trying to say is, I need to get out, have lunch, and do something like a movie or maybe just wandering down at the waterfront, and I don't want the whole group to come. I was wondering if you were busy Saturday?

Funny how it took me so many words to get around to that one question. I'm still not thinking clearly, I suppose.

3 Juu

o0Juuchan0o@hotmail.com

Re: Re: Feeling down…

Yeah, I'm still using this one as you can probably tell by the fact that I'm replying. I'd be happy to go somewhere Saturday. Lunch and then wherever, I can catch the bus from either of the places you suggested. If you're coming to school this week we can organise then, but just email me if you're not going to be there. Everyone will understand.

Unname83@hotmail.com

Re: Maybe

I'm not sure about school. I might come on Thursday and Friday but I'm not sure. The funeral's on Wednesday, 10am and I've been instructed to invite you all. Lunch then the waterfront works well for me, the bus from there goes to my street. It's peaceful there too. Meet me at the bus stop outside that big fish and chip shop and we can find somewhere for lunch. In all honesty, I'm almost looking forward to stopping my self-imposed isolation.

3 Juu

o0Juuchan0o@hotmail.com

Re: ok

It's a deal then. See you there.

- 

Buruma knocked on the forest green door and waited anxiously, fiddling with the tassel on her belt. It wasn't long before some muffled thumps emanated from inside the house and the door swung open to reveal a young girl staring up at her. She sported blonde ringlets pulled into two pigtails, reminding Buruma of her own disastrous hairstyle and leading her to pat the aforementioned atrocity self-consciously ((try saying that one 3 times fast)). Buruma opened her mouth to speak, and as she did so the little girl's chocolate brown eyes narrowed and her slightly pudgy little fists came to rest on her hips.

"You tried to break my brother! You're a meanie!" The offender pursed her lips and tried to steady her breathing.

"I didn't try to break your brother, and I've come to apologise anyway. Please let me in?" Her voice oozed sincerity and innocence, and the child was easily convinced, flinging the door wide open and gesturing for Buruma to enter.

Standing in the hallway, Buruma tried to gather her thoughts. She would not be so irrational now as she had been before. Kami knows she didn't need a criminal record. Ok, the parents would be mad. That was understandable. After all, she had thrown a brick at one of their sons (although, if it was her, she'd just be glad Aaron wasn't the injured one, he was the one worth keeping around) and for all she knew, Buruma could have seriously injured the guy, she didn't even know where she hit him. She remembered him insulting her, and a battle of words, but that was only the beginning. Then he'd started threatening her. The arsehole had actually threatened her with physical harm, in the middle of the school grounds, where everyone could see. It was just a pity he'd spoken so low, or someone would've come rushing to her defence and none of this would have happened anyway. When he'd threatened her, she'd panicked. She'd picked up the nearest thing to her hand (which just so happened to be a broken half brick from the renovations currently taking place near where she and her friends ate lunch) and thrown it as hard she could in his general direction. It hit him. She didn't see where. In fact, after that, all she saw was people crowding around her attacker, and she was taken off to the principal's office.

She was lucky she was such a good student, and lucky Bejita had a history of expulsions from various schools, for she was believed, and while the incident was noted on her school report, it had gone no further than that and a grounding.

"Hello-o? Are you stupid? Mummy and Daddy said they'll talk to you," Buruma snapped out of her necessary narration induced stupor and smiled down at the little girl, finding her intensely annoying.

"Thank you," she said stiffly, and walked into what appeared to be the lounge area of an open plan section of the house. Standing over towards a sofa that was remarkably clean, beige and unrumpled for a household containing a young child, was a tallish, grey haired man, gesturing profusely whilst speaking aggressively to an Asian man with boyish features. Beside them, sitting on the immaculate sofa was a chunky, 40'ish woman with fading blonde ringlets and not much in the way of height. She looked up as Buruma entered the room and reached over to grab at the greying man's shirtsleeve. When he noticed Buruma, his eyes narrowed and he asked her to come and sit down. She nervously shuffled over and perched herself on the arm of a coffee-coloured leather armchair opposite the two people who were apparently Bejita's parents. There was an awkward silence.

"I assume you came here to apologise, Miss Briefs." Buruma nodded quietly. The man had an intimidating manner, just in the way he stood, the way he held his arms and his head, the way he spoke. He scared her. "I'm glad your family has offered to pay the medical expenses. Because of this we can agree to not press any charges against you, as much as I'd like to." At this the sitting woman frowned.

"We wouldn't press charges, dear. I understand that Bejita can be a problem at times, he has trouble channelling his assertiveness effectively," Buruma had to smother a joyless laugh at that line. 'Trouble channelling his assertiveness'? More like ' trouble not being a violent, sociopathic delinquent'. "Although," she spoke up again, "I would like to know exactly what he could have done that would prompt you to, err… take such violent action?"

Buruma coughed nervously. "He, uh, insulted me, and my mother, and then he threatened me. It was self defence, really," she glanced anxiously over at Bejita's father, afraid he would blow up at her at any moment. When his glare simply deepened she allowed herself to breathe again.

"What I want to know," he growled at her "Is why you've waited until Friday afternoon to apologise for assaulting our son on Tuesday. It doesn't exactly encourage us to foster a view of you as a caring girl who made a mistake." She felt like crying. She wished she'd just let him hit her and insult her and do whatever else he wanted. She'd spent all Tuesday night crying and throwing up because she'd never been in such trouble in her life. She was a good girl, and to be perceived as not scared her. It made her physically ill. It had made her an insensitive and distracted friend at Juuhachigou's mother's funeral and quite possibly ruined their friendship. And Kami only knows what sort of rumours were washing over the student body. She hadn't had the guts to attend school since Tuesday.

"I… I don't know… I was upset, I suppose. I… can I see him? Bejita, that is. To say sorry, I mean." Mrs. Ouji ((ok, I suck)) looked over at the Asian man, who shot her husband's back an exasperated look, threw his hands up in the air and stalked out of the room angrily.

"Dr. Wu says that if Geoff is going to insist on keeping the poor boy here then you may as well see him, but he belongs in hospital." At this the teenager's eyes widened. Hospital! She'd had no idea that she'd injured him so badly. She felt that sick feeling rising up in her stomach again, threatening a disastrous display of her weak stomach, as she stood to follow Mrs. Ouji out of the room. Hospital. Well, bricks were pretty dangerous, but still. She threw like a girl, and Bejita worked out a lot. "I assume you know what sort of injuries were sustained, so I won't bother going into that." When she saw the clueless look on Buruma's face, Mrs. Ouji continued, mounting carpeted stairs as she did so, "The brick hit him in the head, he's very lucky not to have sustained more severe injuries. You're not much of a thrower, are you dear. Well, he's got himself quite a concussion, poor boy. We're thinking there must be something more to that actually, because he's still disoriented and woozy and it was several days ago. Geoff, however, refuses to let him go down to the hospital, and has planted in Bejita's head the idea that Dr. Wu is bad news, and the hospital would not help him, it would just make things worse. Well, back onto the subject of injuries," by now they were standing outside a whitewashed wooden door, presumably leading into the bedroom where Bejita was nursing his wounds. "At the moment he's all bandaged up, the whole side of his face is swollen, he can't see out of his left eye because of the swelling. He looks terrible. I think little Lori's feeling a bit put out, because she's not in the spotlight for the moment. Lori being our daughter, of course. The youngest. You spoke to her before."

Upon finishing her little talk, she opened the door and stepped inside, gesturing for Buruma to follow and shutting the door behind them. Bejita looked up from the book he was apparently reading, and surveyed his visitors critically. He was obviously displeased by Buruma's presence, and probably by the look on her face, if she looked as concerned and surprised as she felt. His head was swathed in bandages, as was the left side of his face. He frowned, and then tried to repress a flinch at the movement of his facial musculature.

"Bejita, dear. You know you should be lying down. And I don't like that flinching, have you been taking your medication?" He grumbled something about not needing it and his mother's fists flew to her ample hips, "You most certainly do need that medication! The doctor said so, and don't you go about thinking you can ignore doctor's orders just because you're athletic. You need to take care of yourself as much as anyone else. The entire experience with that Ami girl should have taught you that. She used to be such a good runner, that girl, and look where she's ended up!" Her son looked embarrassed and she quieted somewhat, dragging a chair over from the desk for Buruma to sit on.

After setting the scene to her satisfaction, she slipped out the door, allowing it to click shut behind her, leaving Buruma squirming awkwardly under Bejita's scrutinising gaze, wondering just how to apologise for throwing something at his head.

And then, I got really bored and my cat wouldn't stop walking all over the keyboard so I stopped. But there will be more.

--

And would you believe it? I wrote a chapter that came to 2000 words. I have such skill. Fear me. Actually no, I read parts of this chapter over again (I never re-read my stuff) and it's such crap. I so suck. But you should review anyway, because I love you, and you will die in 7 days if you do not review.


	12. Cluedo is fun for everyone 'tis

"So…." Buruma shifted her weight uneasily, picking at her worn nail polish. She'd had nothing to do all week but apply the stuff, then scratch it off and then re-apply it repeatedly. Nervous habit, and with no school she could wear all the nail polish she wanted. She gazed around the room, searching anxiously for something to strike up a conversation about. "Uh… what are you reading?" she enquired, her eyes coming to rest on the book sitting on the bed beside Bejita. He didn't answer her so she stood up and walked over, picking it up and taking it back to her seat, noting the way Bejita's eyebrow twitched when he was annoyed.

She had to open the book to find the title; it had obviously had a dust jacket at some point. She snorted out loud. "Gulliver's Travels? What are you, 12?"

His scowl deepened "It's for school, and I'll have you know it's a very clever political satire." Buruma pursed her lips.

"It so is not. It's a story about a guy who goes travelling and he meets tiny people and stuff." When he smirked contemptuously she knew she'd said the wrong thing.

"So, why exactly did they move you up a year level? Judging by that last comment, it couldn't possibly be for your intelligence." She mumbled something incomprehensible under her breath and he sneered, "What was that? I can't hear you."

"I'm not a literary sort of a person you fuck. I'm a scientist, with a flair for math as well. Don't look at me like that! I admit, I'm not so great at English but it is my second language." She folded her arms across her chest and frowned. "Let's change the topic."

They both fell silent for a while, Buruma again trying to think of a point of discussion, and Bejita off having a jolly good time in that fun little land that you find yourself in when you have a migraine. ((Note my sarcasm. Migraines should die.))

"You threw a brick at my head." Actually, Buruma had only been half expecting that comment. She'd been all prepared for that when she'd first come in, but after their little discussion about how oblivious she was to the socio-political contexts of literary classics it had all but slipped her mind.

"I, uh… uhm… well, it wasn't a whole brick… just a bit of one, and I can't really throw that great. I didn't even think it would hit you and-"

"You. Threw. A. Brick. Into. My. Head. You're lucky my mother's such a fucking bleeding heart, or we'd be suing. And aren't you even going to say sorry? Just going to sit there making excuses?" Of course, if he'd thrown a brick into her head he wouldn't have apologised, but that was beside the point. It wasn't a matter of his moral integrity, but rather a matter of someone actually having the nerve to lob heavy objects at him. This had never happened before, and was sure to damage his reputation as a Person Whom One Does Not Throw Stuff At.

"Well, SOR-RYYY Mr. I Can Intimidate People Whenever I Like And Not Expect Them To Fight Back Because I'm Such An Almighty Arsehole. But you know what? I haven't had such a lovely week either, you know. In fact, I think I might have preferred being swathed in bandages and having people dote on me to the week I've had, which has involved losing all my friends, getting in a lot of trouble, feeling sorry for myself, and generally being hated by everything and everyone."

He raised an eyebrow in that insanely contemptuous, irritatingly sexy manner of his and then pushed out his bottom lip in a mock pout. "I feel for you, I really do. I don't know how you survive, having such a hard life as yours. I'm sure I would just die if I had to live in your place."

Unfortunately, Buruma was better at equations than comebacks, and was reduced to scrunching up her face and poking out her tongue. This did not improve the view Bejita held of her intelligence. "Why do you have to be so mean to everyone? It doesn't make people like you, you know."

"I need to keep people from making me feel fulfilled, so that I can die a bitter old man and then wreak vengeance on assorted people from the afterlife. I'm quite looking forward to being invisible." It was quite obvious no real answer would be forced from the obstinate teenager sitting opposite her, so Buruma picked at a thread on the hem of her shirt until the door creaked slowly open.

Turning in her seat, Buruma was faced with Bejita's mother, who smiled at her and asked if the two of them would like to come down for something to eat, as Aaron had arrived home and her husband had gone off somewhere. The older woman was vague on the specifics of his outing.

Buruma, of course, was understandably keen to see Aaron, who made for much more willing eye candy than his brother, although he generally didn't have that specific smouldering look she so enjoyed.

And then there was much sleepiness, and it all cut to another scene because brain not sense now making things strange.

And then there was remembering that the plot of the story had been forgotten. At this point, there was much reading of one's own story. There was much criticism and hatred and wanting to stop writing story. There was also much boredom and story continued.

Much Hate says:

Fuck her. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. She can just go get fucked.

Police Cake!! says:

Juu, maybe you're over-reacting.

Much Hate says:

She can just go get fucked. Of course, that's probably what she's doing. Going and getting fucked with her stupid little dickhead year 11 fuckwit boyfriend. I hope she gets fucking arrested.

Police Cake!! says:

Juu, he's not her boyfriend. Somehow I doubt she's sleeping with him. Anyway, I'm sure she didn't mean to be all ucky at the funeral. She's pretty caught up in her own little world at the moment. She's not being a great friend, but I don't think you should be quite so mad as you are now.

Much Hate says:

ARGH! Why don't you go get fucked too. I'm sure Goku's around somewhere. I'm going.

Much Hate has signed off

Chichi gave an exasperated sigh and slumped down in her chair sulkily. Buruma had been a not very nifty friend to Juu lately, but Juu was responding far too harshly. In her opinion, they both just needed some time to themselves. Of course, that left her alone too, but it was a small price to pay if she ever wanted her friends to be, well, friends again.

She wondered, now, if maybe Juu was right, and Buruma was slowly working her way up to becoming Bejita's girlfriend. She could be like that. All sly and manipulative and rather scary. She didn't actually know Bejita at all. She'd met his brother, though, and he seemed nice, if perhaps a little gay. She wondered if maybe Bejita was gay. Gay guys were so nice, it was easy to fall for them before you realised they were gay, and then be left with a broken heart. But then, Buruma wasn't really the type to fall for a gay guy. She liked her guys all mean and drowning in leather. That sounded really wrong, and Chichi giggled slightly, promptly changing her screen name to 'mean and drowning in leather'. She had a sudden image of Buruma dressed to the teeth in leather whore-ness and shuddered slightly. Undoubtedly, Buruma was going to get mixed up with the wrong sort of guy and end up a drug-addicted prostitute gambler who was forced to hack off people's fingers for an extortion gang in order to survive. And when she died of AIDS/drug overdose/loss of fingers/all of the above everyone would say it was such a pity she liked her men mean and drowning in leather. Chichi would rather like to do the eulogy. She was a good little preacher, always telling people what they should be doing, and what was wrong with what they were currently doing. So it would be a good opportunity to tell everyone what a bad idea Bejita was.

Sitting up straighter, she came to the realisation that firstly, she didn't actually know anything at all about Bejita and secondly, many people were trying to chat with her.

And I think it was Professor Plum, in the sunroom with the…. Rope! With the rope." Goku rubbed his hands together with glee as Kuririn transported the small purple lump of plastic that was the professor into the sunroom.

Raditz rolled his eyes. "NO. Look, it was not Professor Plum with the rope, no matter how many rooms you try it in. Just stop." Goku looked up at his older brother with woefully large eyes.

"But look at him. He's so obviously evil, just plotting away, looking all purple."

"Goku, I'm going to agree with Raditz here. No matter how evil you may think the plastic chess piece thing looks, it was not Professor Plum. Besides, Professor Plum can't remember anything, if he wanted to kill someone he'd probably just forget once he got in the same room as them. Now, Colonel Mustard, there's a nasty person." Kuririn glared menacingly at the Colonel Mustard card in his hand.

"Personally," chimed in Raditz, "I think Miss Scarlet is the most dangerous of them all. She's got that whole femme fatale thing going on. One minute she's seducing you, the next she's holding the knife that's sticking out of your chest. Miss Scarlet in the Hall with the Knife."

There was an extended pause before Goku informed him of his wrong decision. Kuririn rolled and moved around in a corridor and Goku proclaimed that it was Professor Plum in the sunroom with the lead pipe, inducing a load groan from his two fellow players, especially Raditz who held the Professor Plum card. He didn't even know why he bothered to play Cluedo with his brother. It was always the same routine with Professor Plum. And he was always Mr. Green. Raditz liked to be Colonel Mustard and Kuririn generally just went with one of the women, as to pick Professor Plum meant to be spirited away to wherever on the board Goku wished to teleport him. I like Cluedo. It's very fun and Miss Scarlet is my favourite. I don't want to write this story right now, and I'm sure that cluedo bit there was going to go somewhere, but I can't be bothered taking it. What a pity. REVIEW ME!!! REVIIIIIIIEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!!!!! Even if it's a "haha u sux so bad I fukin h8 u u faget bich" I DO NOT CARE JUST REVIEW ME. (I must admit though, I will laugh at you if you try to insult me in the manner of the example. How do people spell like that? I mean really, it's just vomit-inducing.)


	13. His own MUM

Omg! It's been like fully 8 months since I've even LOOKED at FF! I hope I still have some readers left XD dies And I hope I can remember what's going on in this story oO

**Chapter 13**

**Oooer, unlucky number or something XD**

"So, Buruma, sweetie, I'm hoping we can all forget this nasty little incident and you and the boys can become good friends." The plump woman's face was all smiles, and Buruma was reminded of her own mother.

"We don't want to be her friend! She's a meanie!" Buruma resisted the urge to shoot the little girl a blood-curdling look and instead stared mutely at the scone on her plate. She was sitting in the Ouji kitchen next to young Lori, who was swallowing pumpkin scones at an obscene rate. Aaron was searching the expensive-looking fridge for the exact flavour of jam that he preferred on his scones, and Mrs. Ouji was opposite Buruma, fussing over a heavily bandaged and thoroughly unwilling Bejita, whose futile attempts at waving her away were amusing.

There was a long pause as Mrs. Ouji continued to adjust Bejita's bandages and Lori inhaled some more scones. Feeling uncomfortable, Buruma decided to break the silence.

"Uhm, Mrs. Ouji. Thank you for being so uh, so nice to me. I didn't expect you to be as forgiving as you are." The older woman nodded with a smile before sweeping across the floor to pluck Aaron's jam from the fridge at first glance. "So uh… why _have_ you been so forgiving? I'm not sure I really understand."

She received a reply in the form of a sigh. Mrs. Ouji then gestured for Buruma to follow her out of the room.

"Look, dear, I'm a mother. I know kids make mistakes. I also know Bejita makes more of them than most. What happened was probably his own fault, as much as I hate to admit it." She ran a hand through her fading curls. "Obviously I haven't fully forgiven you for injuring my son, but I do acknowledge that you probably thought he was going to hurt you." Buruma opened her mouth to say that Bejita _was_ going to hurt her, but was silenced with a quick gesture. "Sit down dear. Now, you have to understand that Bejita's father has been his major influence in life, which is a bit of a pity. As much as I do love my husband, I wouldn't pick him as a role model for my sons. He's taught Bejita a few values, however, that I think are worthwhile, and one of them is to never hit a woman. They both feel perfectly fine about intimidating women, though. I know he's hard to deal with, but he is settling down with time."

Buruma fidgeted in an expensive armchair. She didn't particularly want to hear Mrs. Ouji going on about how Bejita was 'settling down'. That didn't mean a thing coming from his own mother, and they both knew it. "Thanks for the talk Mrs. Ouji, but I think Bejita's really really mad at me and it might be best if I just sort of… ignore him most of the time." She winced as the other woman's brow creased.

"Buruma dear, as a mother, I can also tell that you like the boys. I know Aaron probably seems like the best choice to pursue boyfriend-wise and don't look at me like that. I was a teenager once too, you know. Now, I know he seems like the best option, but he's not interested in a relationship while he's studying. Just between us girls, I think he might not be interested in a relationship with a girl at all, if you know what I mean." Buruma's eyes widened. She certainly hadn't expected that from Aaron's mother. If his own parents thought he was gay, he was definitely out of the picture. "Yes, love, I don't have a problem with it, but Geoff has no idea and I don't think he'd be too happy to find out. So I think, given Aaron's… less mainstream tendencies, you might be better pursuing Bejita. Besides, either it's a very bad concussion indeed or he likes you at least a little, for he wasn't exactly enthusiastic about pressing charges either."

With that and a conspiratorial wink the conversation was over and Buruma was left sitting stunned in the lounge room while Mrs. Ouji attempted to break up a scone battle in the kitchen.

-----

"Professor Plum in the Conservatory with the _Revolver!_" Goku exclaimed triumphantly, shifting the appropriate plastic pieces. Raditz and Kuririn groaned.

"NO! For the last time, Goku, it is NOT Professor Plum! Look! I have the card right here!" Raditz threw the card down onto the board and glared at Goku.

"Silly Raditz. He's a _Professor_. He's clever. He probably planted that card in your hand so you'd think he was innocent." They just stared at Goku.

"Ok, I'm going to empty the card thingy right now. This game is over." Kuririn leaned over and pulled the cards out of the paper slip labelled 'Confidential'. "Mrs. Peacock in the Kitchen with the Lead Pipe. So there."

Goku frowned down at the cards. He did hate Professor Plum so much. "Yeah well… I hear you went on a date with Juuhachigou!"

Raditz let out a low whistle and nudged Kuririn, winking. The short boy frowned. "First of all; Juu has absolutely nothing to with the death of Mr. Boddy, and secondly; where did you even hear that?!"

"Is it true?"

"No! Well, I mean, it wasn't really a _date_ as such."

"I knew it! That's so cool. Now you can come to the movies with me and Chichi and stuff. It'll be so great. Like on television or something." Kuririn frowned.

"Gee, Goku. I don't think she'd really like that. I mean, like I said, it wasn't a date and if I asked her to do that she'd think I'd told everyone we're going out and we're not and I think she'd just be really mad at me and stuff…"

Goku gave him a pleading look, using his best puppy-dog impression (and believe me, that's a pretty good puppy-dog impression, and no one can resist a puppy). Kuririn snapped like a twig. Damn those puppy-eyes. As soon as he nodded forlornly, one thought blocked out all others and just sat in his brain, staring him down.

_She is _not_ going to be happy._

Voosh. Short, I know, but I'm all… trying to get back into the swing of things and such. Fear me a lot. I uh, hope all my old readers aren't dead or something oo Please still love me!

Review or die. Yes. A horrible death it will be too. I'll get Professor Plum to do it and everything. brandishes Cluedo set


	14. Like, yay!

Well, that can count as 3 reviews because of Jill reviewing the earlier chapter and whatnot. I want to meet my quota this time though. I'll give prizes?

**Chapter 14 **

**Yay! Prizes!**

Harbinger has just signed on.

Harbinger says:

Hey Kuririn. That you?

Like a shining mushroom says:

Yeah. Who's this?

Harbinger:

It's me, Juu.

Like a shining mushroom:

Omg! I didn't even know you had a chat thingy.

Harbinger:

I just got it now. I'm still getting the hang of it. So… how was your day?

Like a shining mushroom:

Painful. XD I went over the Son's and played Cluedo. You know how Goku is with board games. What've you been up to?

Harbinger:

Not much. We're moving some of Mum's stuff into the garage. She had this collection of porcelain cats, I don't know if you've seen them. Anyway, so they always used to be on this row of shelves in the hall outside her room but we moved them today, and we took down the shelves. She built the shelves herself when us kids were born, because she was worried about us knocking them off a coffee table or something.

Harbinger:

I never really took much notice of them before now, but right up the top there's these twin ones, like how you buy salt and pepper shakers in pairs. I never even knew that. They've been there for my entire life and I never even noticed.

Like a shining mushroom:

Juu, I umm… I'm sorry. I mean… I don't know what to say.

Harbinger:

Oh God, don't you start too. Will you promise me something? Will you promise never to be all 'gee, I'm sorry' the way the others all are? None of you gave her cancer; you've got nothing to be sorry for. I just want someone to listen, ok? You've always been the best listener, Kuririn, and it used to be I'd say Chichi and Buruma were my best friends, but they never listen. I reckon you're my best friend right now, and I want you to promise that you'll never stop just listening. Can you promise that?

Like a shining mushroom:

Sure.

Like a shining mushroom:

And now I want you to do something for me, please. I think you'll enjoy it.

Harbinger:

…

Like a shining mushroom:

Come to the zombie movie thing they're having at the movies with Goku and Chichi and me. It looks scary?

Harbinger:

Are you asking me out on a date?

Like a shining mushroom:

What, too feminine and faint-hearted to handle the gore?

Harbinger:

Oooh, bring it on small man.

Like a shining mushroom:

Harsh!

Like a shining mushroom:

Oh hey, I've got to go. My mum's getting really shitty about tying up the phone line with the Internet. Movies on Thursday's a deal then. See you!

You have signed off.

---

Bejita,

Sorry I left so suddenly before. I know I was supposed to be around apologising you or whatever, but I didn't want to get jam on my clothes and besides, you didn't look very happy to see me.

Now I'm going to ask a favour. Wait!! Don't crumple this letter up yet. I know you think I'm a dipshit, and I reckon you're a bit of a wanker yourself, but I'm going to ask this anyway. Anyway, so I'm going to admit that I think you and your brother are good looking. Whatever. Anyway, so I've been sort of swooning around over Aaron, but now I think he might be a bit gay (don't tell him I said that, just in case he isn't and gets offended). My friends think I'm insane and that I've been behaving way too pathetic to hook up with either of you, and that's pretty true.

Now I know you're going "wtf?! This girl is bloody insane. I'm going to take some painkillers and read literary classics whilst acting pretentious," but hear me out here, ok. Do you know Chichi Mau in year 10? Or Goku Son? Well, they're my friends and I like them, but I think they're just the sort of people you'd hate with a passion and love to prove wrong about anything and everything, because you're just like that. So basically, I think we should just go out on a date or two so we can snub my friends a bit and show them up and then have a big public argument and you dump me and then I can go "see, I told you I could hook up with him" and you can be all "haha, I crushed that twat's spirits as though she were a puny bug, trapped beneath my fly-swat of unbelievable pretentious popularity and violence."

OK, now that I've got that out of the way, I have some things to ask you, and I'll put them in point form for your convenience.

What happened to your old girlfriend, she seems to have just disappeared. Do _you_ think your brother's gay? I've heard identical twins have this weird sort of semi-psychic connection thing going on. If Aaron is gay, what does this mean for you? On a scale of one to ten, just how ridiculous did I look as a blonde? (I had it dyed back and straightened after visiting your house today.) When do you think the swelling will go down so we can carry out my evil plot if you agree? By Thursday? 

I'll leave some space for you to think about this, as you seem to have like brain damage or whatever.

.

.

.

.

.

So I hope you found this in the lounge and nobody in your family read it, because that would be weird.

From Buruma

PS: Your little sister is annoying. I'm an only child. I would die if she were my sister.

---

You have four messages.

Message One. Received at 6:27pm.

_Beeep. _

_Hi Goku. This is Chichi. We were supposed to meet at 6 for dinner, remember? I'm outside the place now, and my parents are getting really annoyed, so hurry up, ok? I know you just forgot, it'll be fine. Just hurry._

_Beeep._

Message Two. Received at 6:53pm.

_Beeep._

_This is Chichi again. I'm still waiting. I know it doesn't take you that long to get ready and stuff. Are you ok? Why aren't you picking up? Shit… I bet he went out and got freaking lost… ok, Goku… if you're at home, hurry. If you're just lost then it won't take you long to find me. You always find your way eventually. See you soon!_

_Beeep._

Message Three. Received at 7:16pm.

_Beeep._

_Goku, I'm getting worried. I know that when you go out and nobody's home you put the phone on divert to your parents' mobile. Why isn't it diverting? Come on, I'm worried. I'm waiting here, but my parents have gone off looking for you. They're worried too._

_Beeep._

Message Four. Received at 8:02pm.

_Beeep._

_Fuck you. You've either purposely stood me up or something really bad has happened to you. I don't even know which would be better._

_Beeep._


End file.
